Jamaica

Everyone loves a nice Sunday drive on a beautiful day, sometimes we may take a loved one for a ride or a quick-spin. In Jamaica this was very common to ease the monotony of daily living. My Sundays were quite adventurous because my Granny was a speed racer in training.

I remember one Sunday she showed up at the house at the crack of dawn. The rooster was still crowing. She was so excited. I asked her, "Granny isn't it a little early for you to be this enthusiastic?" She replied, "I have a suprise!" I suddenly became a bit nervous, because Granny's surprises were usually quite interesting to say the least. She took me by the hand an led me into the Carport, there I saw the cutest little convertible sports car. I immediately became overjoyed and said, "Oh Granny you shouldn't have done this, Thank you." She said, "No offense darling but this is not for you, this is for me. You're looking at the new Granny mobile."

She rushed me to get dressed so we could go for a nice, relaxing drive. " Huh!" I got all dressed up with my hat as if I were going to church. I donned my favorite hat for the occasion. Gran seated me in her vehicle and I waited patiently while she tied the scarf on her head, put her driving gloves on and her goggles. I said, "Granny, why the goggles?" She replied,"Ms. Mags I have to make time and the traffic on those country roads are thick." The next thing I knew, the car jerked forward, Granny changed gears and we were off. As we got on the country roads Granny started to race with the other cars alongside her. I asked, "Gran, don't you think you're going a bit fast?" She said,"The Lord likes a servant that has a little pep in their step." By this time I was sitting on the edge of my seat, biting my nails and my hair disheveled because my hat fell off a few miles back. I begged Granny to turn back to retrieve it, but luckily that was not necessary, a man riding his bike saw the hat and tracked us down. Granny said, "Thank you sir, you know I'm in a little hurry to make Sunday dinner." The man nodded in awe of her and waved her on. We stopped for awhile at Granny's sister's house where, we ate lunch and then Gran asked my cousins to help shine her car. She also insisted on having a dsound system put in so she could listen to her gospel music while driving. So, imagine this, Granny and I cruising on the Jamaican country road blaring gospel music. We were quite a sight. Granny was such an expert driver that the younger kids called her the "Road Runner Granny". They even made her an honorary member of their exclusive club, she even received a windbreaker jacket that said, "No.1 Road Runner Granny". That day after she dropped me off at home I was delirious from the shock of my Granny driving a sports car and the fact that she was turning into Mario andretti in front of my very eyes. Then she said in her sweet Granny voice, "Magsie, we will do this again next week, right?" I replied, "S-u-r-e Granny, as soon as I drink some mint tea to calm my stomach from today's adventure."

Lo and behold, the next Sunday bright and early Granny was rearing to go. For the next ten years, we had a date every Sunday to driving in her MG. She was the only Granny I knew that wore long skirts with goggles and racing gloves, while wearing her windbreaker jacket. Granny drove me in her MG until she was too old and tired to drive anymore. Then she woul ask me to drive her around, all the while urging me, "Go faster, show me what this baby can do."